Lizzie needs an instruction book - being a demon slayer is definitely not a learn-on-the-job profession.

But she has no time to study - her uncle has fallen into the clutches of a succubus in Las Vegas. But on arrival there’s far worse than just one man’s life at stake - the entire city is under threat, none of her friends can help and Dmitri, the powerful griffin she loves, is dangerously compromised

The first book in this series has enough plot points to intrigue me - while also having a lot more elements I didn’t enjoy quite so much. I was hoping the balance reset and we saw more of the fish-out-of-water Lizzie trying to establish very normal self in the wild and whacky world of elderly biker witches and demons and griffins.

And… we didn’t really get that?

I kept checking to see if I’d skipped a book because Lizzie has suddenly developed a weird level of self-reliance. A major side plot, perhaps the entire theme of this book, is Lizzie trying to drive everyone off and insisting she has to do all this alone… and… since when? By the time line of the book she’s been doing this for about 2 or 3 weeks? But now she’s making multiple comments on how she needs to do all this alone, she doesn’t need help and… this would work in say, book 5? But now it’s odd: where did this come from?

It doesn’t help that we don’t have any real revelations of this book - or any development of the world building that would justify this level of confidence. One of the comic relief elements of this book is the fact she’s given a provisional license. That she doesn’t know how to be a demon slayer. She comically fails the test. She has a huge, and good, epic rant about how her mother had all the training and experience and she was just winging it. She even starts writing a book - The Dangerous Book of Demon Slayers - to guide others because they’re so rare and there’s so little guidance. Her approach to other supernatural in this book is, naturally, confusion

So why the self-reliance? Why the confidence? When she was asked to levitate her response was literally “I didn’t know we could do that!!!”

What matches this confusing lack of character development is a rather equal lack of world development. The witches use magic - which basically means icky things to freak Lizzie out - and I say again what a shame this is. These witches, all older people, were driven out of their home and away from their own traditions and had to hit the road, developing their own cobbled together magic as bikers, transients, people without herb gardens or supplies. I would loved to have seen more of magic, the witches and their cobbled together need to use floss and mouth wash and road kill etc. This is such an utterly fascinating unique concept while, ordinary-woman-who-throws-shit-at-demons-while-whining-and-has-a-cute-animal-companion is dullllll and done done done.

We had ghosts in this book. We had fae. We had people saying fae are discriminated against, we had clearly other supernaturals, a bureaucracy, licensing for practitioners, a fairy godfather and OH MY GODS SHE DOESN’T QUESTION ANY OF IT. It’s just like “hey, this exists” which is great - but we never go beyond that. Give me depth

Because without a compelling, developed main character, without a compelling, developed world we’re left with the plot which, I’m afraid, also doesn’t pull me in. Like the characterisation, it’s not actively awful, it’s just lacking anything to drag me in. They arrive in town to find and save Lizzie’s uncle and manage to find and lose him. And then we just have a whole waffly bit in the middle Dmitri is in trouble, Uncle Phil is in trouble and they don’t seem to actually do a whole lot? There’s just a lot of flabby waffle round the centre of this book, lots of fretting over Dmtri (but not fixing it), lots of worrying whether they can trust a demon hunter (but not doing anything to find an answer for this), lots of fretting over the growing number of succubuses…. And there’s a lot of “oh we have no time!!!” DO SOMETHING THEN!!!!

This was the book I had been dreading - my wife reached this point in the series long before me and put this book down in disgust and said she was not finishing that book or any other books in the series. Without giving anything away, a long running personal decision for the main character is reached in the opening pages of the book and based on the lower rating for this book compared to most in the series, one can see that it was not resolved in a way that made most readers happy.

Putting that aside, I did enjoy the story and felt that the book found its way halfway into the story. Still one of my favorite series and I look forward to the next.

Dangerous Delays: An Emily Lazzaro Mystery by Joyce T Strand - Finding a corpse buried with Native American artifacts wasn’t the first delay of the renovation Emily faced. But she was not prepared for what followed...

"If anything can go wrong it will-at the worst possible time! There were numerous twists and turns in this book before it is revealed who the murderer was. I honestly did not guess this one." - reviews Miki's Hope

"I loved that there were hints, but then you doubted yourself and wondered what you were thinking. Really a fun read that I could not put down." - reviews Hollybee Tells

~ Book Description ~Finding a corpse buried with Native American artifacts wasn’t the first delay of the renovation Emily faced. But she was not prepared for what followed. A murder investigation, excavation to uncover more artifacts, and drug dealers looking for missing product further delay the mansion's restoration into an iconic B&B. While facing these setbacks, Emily is also realizing her growing attraction to a local chef, a man who believes a relationship isn't possible due to his commitment to care for his brain-injured brother.

I received this book for free free as part of an Instagram tour (TLC Book Tours specifically) I did to promote the book.

This was a very intriguing historical fiction mystery.

The book’s strongest point was that it was very atmospheric. It nailed that grimy Victorian England vibe perfectly. The author did a tremendous job bringing that world to life and evoking an air of mystery.

I liked how the book focused on the unsavory parts of Victorian England. From the life of orphans to brothels, this book showcased it all. It was really interesting to see that mixed in with the musical element. It all worked really well together.

As for the mystery, I thought it was good up until the end. It was a fairly straight forward mystery so I wasn’t necessarily wowed by it. It was pretty much solved about 75% of the way through. The rest of the book was just the resolution and aftermath of it all. That being said, it was a very action packed last quarter.

There was a little bit of romance in this as well, but I could have done without it. It felt a little forced. The book would have been just as strong had it not been there.

Overall, this was a compelling historical mystery that will make you feel like you are actually in Victorian England.

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